Update

Due to some miscommunication, we are not getting the dog. We had some very sad children.

Why, Oh, Why??????????

I am not an animal lover. However, Spencer and the kids have been wanting a dog for a very long time. Last night, Spencer came across an offer on our local freecycle site for a 6 mo. old lab, dog house, 10x10 pen, and all other accessories. I should never told him about Freecycle! As things turn out, no one else has offered to take the dog except us. Oh, Yippee...............:( I guess we're getting a dog.

Family Pics

He's smiling!


He's not smiling-wonder why?!?

The Importance of Faithfulness

This is more of a soapbox type of posting. I've been thinking about it for the past couple of weeks after going to a teen rally. Then last night at church a missionary spoke along the same lines, so I thought I would go ahead an post my thought on the topic. Since Spencer started working with the music and youth at church, I have noticed something interesting. There are basically four types of people.

First there are the complacent, walk into church, get their weekly dose of whatever, and walk back out. They don't say much of anything and they don't do much of anything.

Then there are the ones who complain about everything that is done no matter how it is done but refuse to do anything. If they would try to help, their complaints might be considered. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't be complaining any more because they are making an effort for something.

There are those who want the so called lime light and are jealous of recognition that others receive for the work that they do. In the cases that I know, these people are actually quite capable of performing the things they want to do, and they actually volunteer to do things. The problem comes in the fact that when they are asked to do things, these people suddenly have excuses as to why they cannot do what is asked of them or even what they volunteered to do. Even worse, they are a "no show" at the time the task is to be performed leaving no replacement and leaving someone else in a serious bind. These people then become offended when no one asks them to do anything anymore. What do you expect when you are not dependable (faithful)?

There are also people known as "the faithful few." They are an encouragement to the leadership around them because they can be counted on thus taking the burden off the those in charge. The more faithful people there are, the more encouraged others become to be faithful as well. Sometimes these people become overloaded because others know that if the faithful are asked to do something, it will get done. Also, the Bible does mention that if someone is faithful in little things, he can be counted to be faithful in bigger things.

Stuff We've Done This Summer

Had a lot of birthday parties

Set off fire works in our back yard

Took the kids to a splash park

The girls adopted Sarah's new dog. He looks like a stuffed animal.

Had a rescue themed Vacation Bible School

Watch my mom chase fireflies with six of her grandkids.

Watch Brittany and cousin Candace being wild.

Brittany's Birthday

We had a last big birthday party for Brittany at the local Putt-Putt place. It was a really good party but extremely hot! The littlest ones just wanted to stuff ball after ball down the last hole. The man of the place finally poured a whole bucket of balls on the last hole and let them have a great time.

Whew! That's Better

We got Road Runner last night, so now I don't have to wait an hour for my pictures to post up here. Maybe I'll get more up here soon.

You'll Have to Picture This

I haven't posted anything lately because our internet has been giving us trouble, and I also have been having problems uploading pictures. We are in the process of changing things though. In the mean time....I'll leave you with this story.
I had pulled halfway into our driveway after a grocery shopping trip. My husband was getting back on his riding lawn mower, and Zach and a neighbor boy were under the carport. As I was waiting for them to get out of the way, Spencer was using his alternative way of starting his mower........a jerry rigged rope pull. (This starts the mower even though the battery is dead.) As he was sitting back down after pulling the rope, the lawn mower jerked forward throwing Spencer off in a backward somersault. The lawn mower then began making its way for Zachary and the neighbor kid. They jumped out of the way in time, and Spencer was now up and chasing the mower across the yard and motioning for me to get out of the vehicle and help him. Being the submissive wife that I am, I did not do it for two reasons. I knew Spencer would be really mad if the lawn mower hit the vehicle, and I figured I'd be more useful if I stayed in the vehicle and moved it out of the way if need be. The second reason was, I'm seven months pregnant! How am I supposed to help stop a runaway lawn mower? I remember the lecture I got from Spencer when I was pregnant with Sierra helped a boy get his four wheeler out of a ditch.
Spencer finally got the lawnmower pointed toward a tree which it ran into, and Spencer was able to turn it off. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me when it happened!
The moral to this story is always make sure that the lawn mower is out of gear before you start it up.

Catching Up

Haven't blogged much in a while due mostly to internet problems. That doesn't mean I haven't taken any pictures though. I'm going to start with my brother in law and his fiance. Her dad and grandad run a gas pipeline business, but run a ranch as a hobby.

One week they asked Cameron to look after some baby calves that were not being fed by their mothers. Cameron thought our kids would like to help feed the baby calves, and invited them out to the ranch to help him out. It turned out to be a harder job than he thought because the calves weren't really hungry at the time.

After the kids got done, they found a wagon to pull each other around in.

Sierra also found a dog under a hay wagon that she could aggrivate. She quickly found out that she better not mess with that dog!